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As of now, the Red Sox have Rick Peterson, Randy St. Claire, Juan Nieves and Steve Foster in contention for the position. But Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington believes they will have the list whittled down to one candidate very soon.

“We’re getting closer,” Cherington said of the job. “We’re not quite there yet. But my hope is that we have something on that this week. We’ve started. We’ve identified some people we want to talk to about the hitting coach position. That’ll start this week, too. We’re moving along at a pretty good speed.”

The Red Sox are searching for stability with this selection. Since the 2010 season, the team has shuffled through four pitching coaches — John Farrell, Curt Young, Bob McClure and Randy Niemann.

As Cherington and Farrell sift through candidates for the rest of the staff, the Red Sox may contemplate keeping holdovers from ex-manager Bobby Valentine‘s group. The favorites to stay for the Farrell era would be bullpen coach Gary Tuck and first-base coach Alex Ochoa.

Tuck has the right to exercise an option for the 2013 season. He’s currently weighing personal and professional situations, but Cherington indicated that Tuck’s deadline was approaching.

“We’ve continued a dialogue with the guys that were here,” Cherington said. “I’ve told some that I don’t see a scenario where they could be on the staff, and others, there’s still a chance, and we’ll continue to talk to those guys.”

For the time being, the Red Sox have filled their bench coach and third-base coach positions with Torey Lovullo and Brian Butterfield, respectively.

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